A pretty decent pull list this week. In a couple of Hickman comics, the street-level Marvel heroes continue in the ‘Gang War’ event, Batman continues with the interesting ‘Joker: Year One’, and more quality X-books are available. And speaking of Hickman, I can’t believe how his take on Ultimate Spider-Man has been flying under my radar. So I finally got to read the first issue and it hooked me. To be honest, the entire Hickman reboot of the Ultimate Universe has been great from the start. So can my of the week not be…
Comic Book of The Week:
Ultimate Spider-man #2
Hickman / Checchetto
When it came to re-telling the origin story of Peter Parker’s transformation into Spider-man, the man at the top of the hill was my (arguably) my favorite comic book writer of all time, Brian Michael Bendis. He did it with Peter Parker, and then he did it again with Miles Morales. And now, (arguably) my other favorite comic book writer of all time, Johnathan Hickman is taking the reigns to tell the Spider-origin in a different way. In this new Ultimate Universe, The Maker (Evil Reed Richards from the original Earth 1610), remade his reality, minus any heroes to stop his rule. But the universe always finds a way! A middle-aged Peter Parker, married to MJ with kids) is given ‘the Spider’ so he can resume his destiny… AND I’M ON BOARD. There’s something about seeing a grown Peter discovering with great power comes great responsibility… after all, Uncle Ben is still alive in this universe.
As for this issue, Hickman’s writing is on point, and Checchetto’s art makes it feel like it’s somewhere outside of the normal 616 Universe. Just the little things about this comic is it has everything we’ve been asking in the Spider-man comic, yet Marvel seems to not want to happen. Seeing Peter’s home life trying to experiment with his powers while keeping it a secret from Mary Jane and his kid. The friend between Uncle Ben and J. Jonah Jameson (which is weird, but awesome at the same time), and the new cavalcade of reimagined supervillains for Spidey to tangle with. This issue we got to see the Ultimate Shocker (who looks more like The Punisher), and Kingpin.
With an excellent Ultimate Black Panther launched and the Ultimate X-Men around the corner. It feels like the Renaissance for Ultimate Comics. And with it in the hands of Jonathan Hickman, Lord knows where we’re going and what’s about to happen. And I can’t wait!
Rating: 4.25/5
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